The Final State of the Union
This is historical material “frozen in time”. The website is no longer updated and links to external websites and some internal pages may not work.
Summary:
As the holiday season approaches, Deputy Adminstrator for the US Small Business Admistration, Marie Johns, reflects on the importance of supporting small businesses in our communities.
President Barack Obama and daughters Sasha and Malia shop at Kramerbook & Afterwords Cafe in Washington, D.C., Saturday, Nov. 26, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
This Saturday, President Obama took his daughters to a local bookstore to participate in Small Business Saturday. SBA Administrator Karen Mills went to Boston for the grand opening of a small business called Minerva’s Owl, and many others in the Cabinet went to small businesses in their home cities and towns. I had the pleasure of visiting a number of small businesses in the Adams Morgan neighborhood in here in Washington, DC, where I live. Adams Morgan is a vibrant neighborhood with over 250 small businesses, from restaurants and eateries, to booksellers and vintage fashion stores.
We all saw the news reports of crowds lining up late at night to shop on Friday. Black Friday sales can be great for saving money, but small businesses are where you go for individualized service and unique, handpicked, Made-in-America products. That’s why Americans visited small businesses on Saturday—for the personal touches and quality products that you can’t find anywhere else.
Your dollar goes a long way when you shop at a small business. That money goes right back into the local economy. And that’s important, because half of working Americans either own or work for a small business, and small businesses create two out of every three new jobs. The SBA is working hard to make sure even more small businesses can keep growing. We had an all-time record for SBA loans this year, with over $30 billion in lending supportthat helped about 60,000 small businesses buy a new building, get more equipment, or hire more workers. And, right now, the President is calling on Congress to cut in half the payroll taxes for small businesses as part of the American Jobs Act.
This holiday season, we can all do our part to support America’s small businesses as they strengthen our economy and create jobs, by making every day Small Business Saturday.
